Halo : The Lost Apiary
by DMDyet
Summary: Following the adventures of a marine in his mid-twenties, Corporal Daniel Gricks finds himself sucked into an epic adventure against the Covenant for an artifact that could spell the destruction of all life in the galaxy.
1. The Last Spartan

**Chapter 1**  
_The Last Spartan_

"In our top news story, John 117-a Spartan, part of Oni's secret weapons project and the last of his kind-returns to Earth a hero. We will have a live broadcast of the award ceremony ton-"

Daniel Gricks turned off the TV and shook his head as he straightened the bow-tie on his white uniform. He was a Marine Corporal, born in Australia and transferred for duty on the Orbital Defense Platform Cairo with the destruction of reach. He looked at himself in the mirror of his small living quarters he had on the station before brushing a hand over his short, spiky brown hair. Finally, he brushed off some dust and hair from the sleeves of the jacket, smoothed out the collar, and turned around to a small device sitting on his bed.

"What do you think" He asked, crossing his arms. The device made a beeping noise and a small blue holographic woman appeared above it, smiling softly.  
"You look good in a suit. You should wear stuff like that more often." She replied. She was Aurora, an Intelligent Programmed Artificial Intelligence that Dan had designed himself. He was hoping that a big business or even the UNSC would want to buy the technology-it saved having to kill people and use their brains as templates, at least, if the rumors were true.

Dan rolled his eyes, "You know very well that I hate wearing suits. They're so… uncomfortable. There's so little room to move in them." Aurora just chuckled softly, but her composure soon changed as she raised an eyebrow.  
"Why did you turn off the TV during the thing about the Master Chief?" She asked, crossing her own holographic arms. Dan turned back to the mirror and started to brush off his pants, "It's a bunch of baloney if you ask me. It's probably just a hell jumper with a high rank in green armor and special ops training on Reach." He replied as he finally finished straightening out his bow-tie for the second time.

Before Aurora could respond, Dan had turned back to her.  
"What's the time?" He asked as he put a foot on the edge of the bed and fixed up his shoelaces.  
"Four fifty-three." Aurora answered. Dan almost immediately tensed up, "Four fift… why the hell didn't you tell me what time it was?! We're going to be late!" He said as he grabbed the device and put it around his left wrist like a watch. Aurora disappeared back into the device as he rolled his sleeve over the top of it.  
"You specifically told me not to bother you about what the time was, since I'm apparently always bothering you about being late." She retorted, seeming very serious for a moment before letting out a giggle.

"I didn't expect you to actually _listen_ to me! Call up the elevator so I don't waste any more time!" Dan replied as he grabbed his formal white hat that went with the suit and put it on.  
"One step ahead of you. Elevator is open and waiting, and a tram is on its way to pick us up." She said as Dan took off out the door of his living quarters, shutting the door behind him, before quickly taking off down the hallway leading to the elevator-which was open and waiting like Aurora said it would be. He got into the elevator and quickly hit the button for the tram. He watched impatiently as the doors finished closing slowly, and he felt the slow, smooth movement of the elevator descending. He shook his head, "You're such a pain sometimes, and then you do things like this."

"Daniel, need I remind you that you designed my attitude and emotions off your very own?" She retorted, causing Dan to laugh softly.

"Yep, you're a pain all right…" Dan said as the elevator doors opened and a tram pulled up just outside them. He quickly ran to the tram and got inside, the doors shut behind him and the tram started moving. Dan then walked over to the glass doors of the tram on the opposite side he got in on. Outside the station was a beautiful view of Earth, along with hundreds of military craft.

"What's going on?" Dan asked curiously as a cruiser flew by the station, so close he could make out its registration.  
"Not sure, ever since this big EMP blast on Earth that knocked out the whole chatter net the other day, the UNSC has been amassing its fleet. They even jumped in some craft from some of the remaining colonies. It looks as though they're prepar-" Before Aurora could finish, the whole station shook and the power flickered on and off. The tram came to an abrupt halt, almost throwing Dan off his feet. Red warning lights started spinning everywhere.  
"What the hell was that?!" Dan asked as he got to his feet and straightened his hat.  
"I don't… slip-space rupture blast, just off the Defence Grid… 13 Covenant cruisers, 2 assault carriers. They're launching boarding craft" Aurora replied, sounding very serious for once.  
"They're here..."


	2. Boarding Action

**Chapter 2**  
_Boarding Action_

Dan was stuck inside the tram, the flickering power causing a lockdown in the station, and thus the tram doors were sealed shut. He stood by one of the doors, pounding on the glass with his fists.  
"It's hopeless, it must be bulletproof glass. Have you had any luck at all overriding the emergency systems?" Dan said, pulling up his sleeve to look at his chatter watch. Aurora appeared in her blue holographic form above it, "No luck. The computer system is in lockdown, too. And there's another AI in the system, a very powerful one. It's sealed up any access I had to the ship schematics or controls-protecting against any possible viruses the Covenant could bring, I bet." She replied, a hopeless look on her face, "I don't know what to do."

Through the glass doors and roof of the tram, Dan could see a huge battle going on just beyond the perimeter of the orbital defense grid. The covenant fleet was tiny compared to what he heard had taken Reach. And considering the sheer number of ships that had just come to Earth, there was no chance the Covenant could win-unless they bought reinforcements from wherever the hell their home world was. He slammed his fist against the glass of the tram angrily when a nearby explosion rocked the station. Dan was thrown from one side of the tram to the other, and the tram started to tilt. Sparks started flying from beneath the tram, making a horrible screeching noise as cables were ripped from the bottom of the tram that were connected to the tracks. Then, the tram fell off its railings about two stories into the room below with a huge crash, the glass of the tram breaking under the sheer pressure of the fall as the tram fell onto its side.

The ripped up cables caused the lighting in the room to go out completely, only the red glow from the warning lights illuminating the large hall. Dan groaned and opened his eyes, slowly getting to his feet. He placed his right hand on the back of his neck and tilted his head from side to side, making loud cracking noises. He pulled off his formal hat and looked it over, it was crushed by the fall. He groaned and threw it aside before looking out the shattered glass. He could hear the sound of flames nearby, probably caused by the sparks from the ripped up cables. With the tram so damaged he easily opened up the heavily damaged doors now above him and climbed out, jumping off the tram to look around. It was quiet, thankfully.  
"I suppose it could have been worse, we could have landed in a room swarming with Covenant." He said, looking down at his chatter watch. Aurora was still there, obviously trying to hold back laughter. Dan shook his head and pulled a pistol from his belt, "I need to find a bigger weapon. Where the hell am I?"

Aurora shrugged, "I have no idea, I can't access the station schematics. My bet is one of the park halls, judging by all the trees and stuff."   
"Alright. In that case, I should be able to-" Before Dan could finish, a loud hissing noise came from a corner of one of the rooms. Dan looked over his shoulder at the door, the center of it starting to glow white-hot. He looked down at his chatter watch, a worried look on his face.  
"Arry?"  
"I've been intercepting chatter from around the Cairo. Boarding craft are docking with the station and using plasma cutters and explosives to cut through the steel reinforced doors…"  
"Oh, that's just… groups of how many?"  
"Security cameras, motion detectors and reports suggest groups of about thirty. Twenty-five grunts, five elites."  
Dan almost choked, a group that large was a job for a small group of marines with battle rifles and SMG's, not a single marine wielding a pistol! He stayed calm and sat back against the roof of the destroyed Tram. He ejected the clip from the pistol and looked it over, it was full, so he smacked it back into the pistol and snapped back the slide, a bullet loading into the chamber.

Dan grasped the pistol in both his hands and looked around the tram. Sparks were flying from the centre of the door when suddenly there was a large blast and the door cracked, pieces of metal flying as far as the other side of the hall. The smoke cleared, revealing several covenant. An elite and 7 grunts, two of which were setting up turrets by the door. Dan pulled his head back and rested behind the tram, letting out a sigh, it was a smaller group thankfully, but still more than he could handle alone. Aurora started talking then, whispering as to not alert the group of covenant.  
"I managed to contact the AI in the Cairo's system, Cortana. She's got a squad of Marines on the way."  
Dan let out a sigh of relief, it would only be a matter of holding out where he was now.  
"Wait… you've got movement, something heading towards you." Aurora said, causing all of Dan's hopes to actually survive to seem even further away once again. Then, a yellow-marked grunt scout walked by the downed tram. Dan quickly grabbed the grunt from behind and smacked it over the back of the head with his pistol, knocking it unconscious. Dan picked up the plasma pistol it was carrying and looked it over, he had been trained to use Covenant weapons back on Reach. He checked the charge on the plasma pistol and held it in his left hand while his right hand held his pistol.

He let out a breath of air as he prepared himself to jump out from behind the tram and blast away the covenant when Aurora suddenly stopped him.  
"Wait! Marines, up high!" She said, whispering still, pointing to a ledge on the end of the room opposite the group of Covenant, Dan being in easy view of them. Dan could see 4 marines, one of them setting up a turret. Another one holding a sniper rifle gave Dan the thumbs up, causing Dan to smile and nod. Once the turret was down, the marine setting it up manned it and aimed at the Covenant. Suddenly, the room was filled with flashing from the end of the turret; Dan could hear grunts yelling out and the elite barking orders at them. The turret stopped firing as suddenly as it had started, the four marines jumping off the balcony into the garden below. The room was once again filled with weapons fire. The elite ran past the tram to get a better view of the marines in the garden, not noticing Dan crouched behind it. Dan quickly jumped up and blasted a bullet from his pistol into the back of the elites head, just as the marines got its shield down.

The elite fell to the ground with a thud, blood spilling from the back of its head. Dan looked around the corner only to see a large pile of dead grunts with their strange thick, bright blue blood splattered everywhere. He threw down the plasma pistol and walked to the Marines, who were climbing out of the garden and walking to him by now. Dan walked to the one who was obviously the sergeant of the group of marines. He had a frightening look, enough to scare any grunt-or Marine, for that matter. A wound from a bullet on his right cheek saying more about the sergeants past duty than any words probably ever could. Dan held out his hand to the Sergeant as they finally came within a few feet of each other, the Sergeant taking his hand in a tight grip and shaking it once.

"Corporal Gricks, Sergeant. Thanks for the support." Dan said, removing his hand from the Sergeants iron fist.  
"Master Sergeant Cyr. Happy to blow away alien scum any day, marine."

"I hate to break up this little exchange of hobbies…" Aurora cut in, appearing in her blue holographic form on Dan's chatter watch once again.  
"But we need to get to Habitat Delta, there's a group of Cove-" Aurora continued, but before she could finish a voice came over the speakers throughout the station, "All hands, brace for impact!"  
A huge explosion shook the station, almost throwing the group of marines off their feet. Dan looked to Aurora, "What the HELL was that?!"  
"It's the Athens… it's been destroyed. That explosion that took the tram off the rails? That was the Malta."  
"Holy hell, what by? Their ships aren't in range of the orbital defence grid yet!" One of Sergeant Cyr's marines added. Aurora seemed to be listening to something before turning to the Marine. "By a bomb. The covenant bought a bomb"


End file.
